Russian scientists ready to study Holy Fire

Moscow, June 15, Interfax - The Russian scientists intend to measure the temperature of the Holy Fire that descends in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on the eve of Orthodox Easter every year.

‘We hope to begin our studies within the next couple years. Technical equipment allows to do it, but there is no money’, chairman of the working group for miraculous sings in the Russian Orthodox church Rev. Pavel Florensky said at the news conference in Moscow on Thursday.

According to him, there are thermometers that register the temperature an allow monitoring its changes in the fire.

There are many testimonies to the fact that Holy Fire does not burn at the first minutes after descent.

The scientists remarked that different religions are known for miracles, but ‘it takes miracle witnesses for the miracle to exist.’ ‘One can believe or not to believe in it. We take it for the truth,’ Florensky said and warned against confusing a miracle and God’s grace with medical treatment.

He said it was a miracle to have the right hand of St. John the Baptist in Moscow. Another miracle in his view is an immediate and mass turning to church.’